Roland Barthes’ “Rhetoric of the Image” essay from Image – Music – Text, Translated by Stephen Heath. Hill and Wang, 1977. (excerpt)

  • Define and identify the three types of messages that Barthes breaks down in the Panzani advertisement (linguistic, coded iconic, non-coded iconic).
  • How is the Panzani advertisement trying to persuade and influence the viewer?

After reading this week’s reading, “Rhetoric of the Image” essay, describes in full detail and breaks down the messages inserted in an ad for Panzani products, an Italian brand. The descriptive essay’s message target linguistic, coded iconic,
and non-coded iconic.
The linguistic message is literally the text in the image used to describe the product and the message of the overall ad. At the bottom left portion of the ad, you see the captioned text that identifies each packaged product in the image. “Pates” for pasta, the “Sauce” in the tin, and “Parmesan” for the cheese in the small packaged bag. Below it has the text, “A L’Italiene De Luxe” in French which translates to “Italian Luxury”. The designer uses the French language to translate the product as a luxury brand, which tells the consumer this product is high quality and is worth their money. The coded iconic message in the ad is the quality of the product. (Coded iconic message means an image with a coded message) In the image, the products are grouped together within a net shopping bag. The net immediately reminds me of when a fisherman just catches a batch of fish which represents a fresh product. To continue that message, fresh produce such as onions and peppers are also in the bag with the packaged products. The non-coded iconic message here is that this brand is full-blown Italian. (Non-coded message means an image with literal meaning) The colors used on the package are red and green, and the rich background color of the red fabric screams pasta sauce. The brand name as well “Panzani” echoes the assonance of the Italian language.

Overall, this advertisement is persuading the viewer to think, if they want an authentic Italian pasta dish as close as possible to the one from Italy then this is the brand to use. Using traditional Italian colors and items used mostly in Italian dishes definitely helps carry that message.

Annotation Links.

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